Monday, January 19, 2015

UPDATES for 1/12-1/15 2015

**The students are back into the swing of everything!   We did have some outside time and it was great to get out into the fresh and chilly air.  We have a bit of a snow pants dilemma.  Both Tiago and Ethan went home with snow pants that are not theirs.  I am asking that you check your child's snow pants to make sure you do not have them.  Ethan's and Tiago's are marked with initial or name.  Thanks much!  While it is a bit warmer......please continue to send boots and snow pants.  It will continue to be messy and wet. 
**Mid Year assessments are on going and will be completed at the end of this week. 
**Notification of date and time for your Parent/Teacher Conference is is in your child's homework folder.  Parent/Teacher Conferences will be held on Monday, February 9th, Tuesday, February 19th and Wednesday,  February 11th.  Please confirm your date and time.  Let me know if I need to adjust your date or time.  Pleas note:   On Thursday, February 12th and Friday, February 13th school will be in session in the MORNING ONLY.  Dismissal will be at 11:00 am.  Hephzibah, bus and Magical Minds pick up will be at 11:00 am. 
**Your child also brought home their 100th Day-100 Item Project.  Read the directions on the heart.  If you have any questions, please email me.  Our 100th Day along with an early Valentine's Day Celebration will be held on Thursday, February 5th from 12:30-2:55 pm.   On this special afternoon,  parents will facilitate learning stations surrounding the number 100, assist in delivery of Valentine cards and treat bags.  Fun! Fun!  We now have Ms. Cummings, Ms. Makonnen, Ms. Meier, Ms. Howell and Ms. Wojcik volunteering to help.  I could use 3-4 more volunteers so please consider helping!  It is really fun!!!!
**Hearing Screening for Kindergarten students will be held on Friday, February 6th.
**The FUN FAIR is COMING!  The FUN FAIR is COMING!  The Irving School Fun Fair is Saturday, February,  21st from 11-3pm. throughout the school.  There will be games, prizes, silent auction, dancing for desserts and much more.  Each classroom is donating a special theme basket.  Look for information from our room parents.  It is a great day!  Come play a game with me!
**FUTURE FIELD TRIP:  to Dominican University to see the production of "Click, Clack, Moo."  We will go on Friday, March 6th from 10-12 pm.  More info soon.
**Keep saving those GIANT BOXES (the ones you can climb in) as well as other cool things for our space station design and construction in APRIL during our Space Theme.  I cannot store anything now.  I will have you start bringing stuff in after spring break. 
This week:     It was all about doing something nice for others, Martin Luther King and water.  Students turned our "Complimen-Tree" into a mitten tree after reading the inspirational story by Candace Christiansen.    The students used what they learned about symmetry from Mr. Packer to design their pair of mittens.  The text was also used for working on story main events and retelling a story in sequencial order which are part of our common core standards.  We read several stories about Martin Luther King and used our map skills to trace the path of the March on Washington.   In the awesome story, "Martin's Big Words," (which we also saw on video) the students were so thankful of the Dr. King's accomplishments and the use of non violence to promote change. There were some very reflective moments in our discussions where students could not believe that there was a time when they would not have been able to go to school together.   We love our classmates!  We used the projected text to examine words and illustrations.  The students began inquiries into the properties of water.  Who knew a droplet of water could be so interesting!  More in the science section. 
Reading/Language Arts:     The students completed Unit 4 Food in our Treasures Reading Series.   The students reviewed the use of nouns and verbs in sentences.  They listened to the Big Book text, "From Strawberry to Strawberry Salad."  The student traced the origin of the fruit from plant to the table in a fruit salad.   Students discussed what a recipe was and used the format--what you NEED (nouns) and what you DO (verbs) in following a recipe.  The students listened to the poems, "Crunch, Crunch, Thanks a Bunch," and "Crusty Corn Bread."  We made a group list of the differences and similarities between regular text and poems.    The students continue work in the Haggerty Blue Book.  They are using their oral skills in isolating initial, medial and final sounds, blending and segmenting  3, 4 and 5 phoneme words, adding, deleting and substituting sounds to create new words and identifying the word that doesn't have the same sound as the others in a sequence of 4 words.  Workstations this week included leveled reader story elements discussion and fluency check, writing a question sentence using the word "Can," word search with short o words, writing about your favorite meal and where is came from,  small group recipe writing and illustration using the format--what we need....what we do and recording sounds to create short u words using the app Word Wizard.  The students used the text "The Snowy Day" to begin recording story elements and events in written form and using illustrations as a choice. 
Math:     The students continue to work on rote counting to 100 and beyond and grouping objects by tens to equal 100.   Whole group lessons focused on the terms GREATER THAN and LESS THAN.  Small group  workstations included playing the game "Nuts and Bolts," (greater than/less than) with 1 and 2 digit numbers,  completing number bonds to 10 and reviewing the word SUM,  playing Make 5 BINGO and working with a partner to group by 10's and count 100 items and working working with a partner with the app Number Rack and Subitize Tree.
Writing:      The students have completed all formal uppercase letter forms and will begin lowercase letter formation next week.  The students used their mini boards and chalk to review all forms and then applied their knowledge in their orange practice books.  The students completed a writing project on the topic of SNOW.  They continue work on beginning with a capital letter, spacing of words in a sentence, placement of words on a given line, naming and telling and now beginning to expand their sentence using words that describe (adjectives.)  Many of the students are composing 1-4 sentences independently!  
Science:     The students began discussion/dictation on what they knew about water.  They were introduced to the word property and what it means.  A property is a type of behavior.  Each student was given an experiment book as well as a science reflection journal to record the experiments and their own thoughts, questions, comments and sketches.  In Experiment 1, the students explored water using a variety of tools-spoon, straws, stick and cup.  In using these tools, they described how water feels, smells, looks and sounds.  In Experiment 2, the discovered that water droplets have their own shape and can "stick" to one another like magnets.  Using a pipette, they practice sucking up into it and releasing the water back into their cup.  It was fun to watch the students carefully trying to capture one droplet of water and squeeze it on to their wax paper.  The students delighted in pushing one water droplet into another----what happens----it forms a bigger droplet!  We talked about the scientific word-cohesion- to describe the sticking together process.   Students wrote in their science journals and made sketches of their experiment.  Next week--climbing water!
Technology:     We are in the process of updating our apps!  I will send out a complete list when completed.  In reading, student small groups and individuals used the apps Word Wizard for practice in recording beginning, middle and ending sounds to form words,  Rocketspeller, Montessori Crossword and Magic Reading 3 to reinforce segmenting, blending and creating words and iTalk used by leveled groups to record and play back reading for fluency.  In math, student small groups and individuals used the app Subitize Tree, Number Rack and Number Find and Monster Squeeze to reinforce subitizing skills, problem solving, number bonding and greater than and less than skills.
Literature:     "The Snowy Day," "A Drop of Water," "Snow Day for Mouse," "Investigating Water," "Shoveling Snow," "Water's Journey," "Snowman Magic," "I am Snow," "Water," "Martin's Big Words," "A Picture Book of Martin Luther King," "Martin Luther King Jr. Day," "Weather Words," "Deep Snow," "Martin's Dream."

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